Go to a specific date

Explore

The Public Inspection page
on FederalRegister.gov
offers a preview of documents scheduled to appear in the next day's
Federal Register issue. The Public Inspection page may also
include documents scheduled for later issues, at the request
of the issuing agency.

Document Details

Enhanced Content - Table of Contents

This tables of contents is a navigational tool, processed from the
headings within the legal text of Federal Register documents.
This repetition of headings to form internal navigation links
has no substantive legal effect.

Enhanced Content - Sharing

Enhanced Content - Document Print View

Enhanced Content - Document Print View

Enhanced Content - Document Tools

These tools are designed to help you understand the official document
better and aid in comparing the online edition to the print edition.

These markup elements allow the user to see how the document follows the
Document Drafting Handbook
that agencies use to create their documents. These can be useful
for better understanding how a document is structured but
are not part of the published document itself.

Enhanced Content - Developer Tools

Official Content

Official Content

Published Document

This document has been published in the Federal Register. Use the PDF linked in the document sidebar for the official electronic format.

Start Preamble

In accordance with Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 238.21, notice is hereby given that the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has received a request for special approval of alternative compliance, under 49 CFR 238.230, from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). The individual petition is described below, including the party seeking relief, the regulatory provisions involved, the nature of the relief being requested, and the petitioner's arguments in favor of relief.

American Public Transportation Association

APTA seeks FRA approval of an industrywide safety appliance standard for all newly manufactured passenger cars, in accordance with 49 CFR 238.230(d). This section provides a process by which a railroad or a railroad's recognized representative may request approval of safety appliance arrangements on any passenger car considered a car of special construction under 49 CFR 231.18. Asserting that it has become difficult to apply FRA's safety appliance regulations, contained in 49 CFR part 231, to modern passenger equipment, on September 4, 2007, APTA petitioned FRA for approval of Start Printed Page 12500APTA Standard SS-M-016-06, “Standard for Safety Appliances for Rail Passenger Cars,” as an alternative means to comply with 49 CFR part 231.

APTA has submitted a final copy of APTA Standard SS-M-016-06, together with a table that compares the APTA standard to FRA's safety appliance regulations contained in 49 CFR part 231 and drawings (referred to as plates) that reflect placement of safety appliances in accordance with the APTA standard. An annex has also been included in the APTA standard, which contains a sample car inspection checklist that could be used by railroads and car builders for quality control and to confirm proper design and installation of the safety appliances on newly manufactured passenger cars. All of these documents are available in Docket Number FRA-2007-0010, the docket for this proceeding, which can be accessed online at http://www.regulations.gov.

Written comments on this petition must be received by April 7, 2008. Comments received after that date will be considered to the extent possible without incurring additional expenses or delays. You may submit written comments and related information (identified by Docket Number FRA-2007-0010) by any of the following methods:

FRA anticipates being able to resolve this petition without a public, oral hearing. However, if FRA receives a specific request for a public, oral hearing prior to April 7, 2008, one will be scheduled, and FRA will publish a supplemental notice in the Federal Register to inform interested parties of the date, time, and location of any such hearing.

Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). Note that all comments received will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided. You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78), or you may visit http://DocketsInfo.dot.gov.

Start Signature

Issued in Washington, DC on March 4, 2008.

Grady C. Cothen, Jr.,

Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety Standards and Program Development.